Share this:

Custom outdoor planter made with chicken wire and landscape fabric over a shepherds hook hummingbird feeder carousal. When I moved and then spray painted my grandma’s shepherds hook plant hanger it just screamed for me to add a plant to the middle of it. But no pots would work in this instance so I set out to make my own!

At first I had my heart set on a fuschia like this one:

I don’t own this image and I don’t know who does!

So, up in my neck of the woods the fuschia in red and white or red and yellow is pretty darned rare. Instead I can buy any number of the purple and pink fuschia that I could possibly want. But I thought the pink might clash with the red hummingbird feeder so I kept looking.

(Really though is there anything better then walking around a green house!? I may have taken WAY longer then I needed to to find the perfect plant lol I’m in Heaven.)

I wanted a plant that would really drape and hang over the entire feeder and entirely cover up its base.

This is what I ended up with and its called a scaevola. I love how its kinda of viney and drapes over the whole feeder!

Ok so I cut a square piece of chicken wire and draped it over the top of the feeder. Then I pushed it down into the center and kinda wrapped it around the back of the shepherds hooks to secure it.

(Wear gloves and watch yourself with chicken wire, it will scratch you!)

Then I pushed a square piece of landscape fabric into the chicken wire and transferred the plant into a garbage bag.

Why did I decide to the transfer the plant first into a garbage bag? I feared the landscape fabric wouldn’t hold any kind of water and I was told this type of plant needs a lot of water!

After plopping the plant down into the planter I waited before poking holes in the garbage bag and its a good thing I did. The warning that scaevola’s require a lot of water was NO JOKE. This plant requires TONS OF WATER and I’m really glad that I didn’t add drainage holes.

(You may want to though depending on the plant you choose.)

In this case my plant wholly covered the majority of the chicken wire beneath it. I had initially planned on using landscape moss to cover the bottom of the planter but it didn’t seem necessary.

I am totally excited with how this turned out and was really thrilled when I was working on it because I had multiple hummingbirds come and tell me that I was totally interrupting their dinner!

Make sure and check out the rest of the planter projects from the Farmhouse Hens this week, be prepared for some really creative ideas!

10 Comments

The chicken wire idea to hold the plant in the middle is fantastic. I love how this looks, its one of those planters that would make me look at how it was made. Your home is turning into a sanctuary everything one of a kind, made with whats on hand. I think this plant is a better choice than the fuschias, as fuschias require so much water. Love it.

Hi Mae, I’m sorry to say it was not a purchase. I went looking and looking a couple of years ago to try and find them but they don’t seem to exist! I think my grandpa must have made it for my grandma by welding the shepherds hooks on to the base. Thank you for coming by!

Love the idea. I had up to 3 dozen hummingbirds when I lived. It was always a challenge to find enough places to hang the hooks. And to put the flowers with them is a great idea! Just a note, though. Be careful not to let your hummingbird food get too cloudy. It turns sour in the heat, and I once read it can harm the birds. Not sure if that is true or not….

Hi Shirle, I read that too about hummingbird food! I was having to change it out every few days when it was SO hot here for awhile. I’ve also found that if a little too much sugar is added (as opposed to the 1 cup for every 4 cups of water) that also makes it turn faster. We finally cooled down a bit here, though it makes me think about winter and I hate that, so the hummingbird food is lasting a little longer now! Good note to remember though!

Leave a Comment

I’m Tarah!

There is nothing I love more then making something new and usable again that someone else would have thrown out or torn down. Find out more about me, how I renovated my Grandparents’ 100 year old house and how I am a total DIY fanatic by checking out The story behind Storyhardt Farm You can also find out more about the amazing Grandma behind this blog who moved in to this old farmhouse with my Grandpa nearly 70 years ago!

Sign up for my weekly DIY Newsletter!

Email Address*

Sign up

Email Address*

Disclaimer

Everything you see here on this blog the author has chosen to do so entirely at her own risk. And that is: risk to herself and risk to whatever she may be working on/her home and her own wallet. The author assumes absolutely no liability if you choose to follow in her foot steps and attempt anything you see on this website yourself. The author strongly urges you to do your due dilligence before attempting anything of a diy nature at home.

Disclosure and Privacy Policy

This post may contain affiliate links and, if you do choose to use them it will cost you nothing, but you will be supporting my little farm as well as this blog and my future projects. Likewise for the banners and ads you see around this site. This site also collects Cookies: For my Full Disclosure, click HEREFor my Privacy Policy, click HERE

Copyright Notice

All the photos and text on this blog are copyright Protected and owned by the author. If you would like to feature or use any of the photos or work you see here that is wonderful! You may share one photo from a post, if linked back to the original post. You may not copy entire articles and posts (even if you link back to me) without my express permission. Email requests using the contact form HERE